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 Young designer's dream comes true thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation Most eight-year-olds don’t really know what they want to do when they are older, but Jessica Maybury already has it all down, and she is certain that she wants to become a fashion designer. Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with a condition that causes her bone marrow to fail and because of this she has been granted a wish by the Make A Wish Foundation. This is a charity that has been established in order to allow children who have life-threatening diseases to have a wish come true. As part of the wish that she was granted, Jessica was taken by limousine to the Paddington offices of Marks & Spencer’s where she was treated for the day like a real fashion designer. She was allowed to create a mood board, by going through magazines and picking up styles she likes. She was even able to sketch out some of her own designs and then have them transferred into the computer where she could add colour to them. She has also been able to see some of the Christmas clothing range that has been planned by the retailer and was even allowed to try a few items from the collection on. At the end of her special day she was presented with a T-shirt which he had designed herself. Her parents described the opportunity as absolutely wonderful for her.In 2011 Jessica was given the diagnosis of aplastic anaemia. This is a condition which means that her immune system is failing so she can catch infections very easily. She constantly has to take antibiotics to fight off any infection and she has also had to have a bone marrow transplant. Chemotherapy has also been a part of the treatment and this is also made her feel increasingly sick although it is helping her in the long-term. Her mother commented, “It was incredible to watch her as she enjoyed this amazing day. We are in a situation that you think will never happen to you, it is so unfortunate that she has this condition, but the Make a Wish Foundation really made one of her dreams come true.” In the UK there are currently 20,000 children who have a life-threatening condition and over 1000 children each year are given a wish by the charity.
 Rent everything you need for your little one from The Baby Loft If you’re looking for a place to rent baby equipment then you should consider the Baby Loft. They offer a solution which is cost-effective and will get you access to any baby accessories that you might need. This is something that can be very useful if you are going on a trip but don’t want to take the equipment with you as they provide everything you need for a hassle free holiday. The site has a great deal on offer for babies and has everything they need for travelling, sleeping and even mealtimes. All of the products available from the company are from leading and well-known brands so you are guaranteed to be renting quality products. There is also a vast array of products available to rent to keep the little ones endlessly amused, choose from bouncers, to activity centres and baby gyms. For birthdays or child friendly alfresco events, you can even rent outdoor play equipment such as sandpits, slides, swings & trampolines. The Baby Loft provides a reliable and affordable service, customers can choose to hire equipment for three days, one to two weeks, or a month. Items are personally delivered within a fifty mile radius, or if you a little further afield items are sent by a reputable courier. Equipment can be hired individually or hired in bundle packages for example a ‘Grandma bundle’ for when the little ones are away with relations for the night, weekend or longer. Renting baby equipment with The Baby Loft makes perfect sense, and not only for when travelling with children. Why pay through the nose for all the latest baby gadgets and gizmos cluttering up homes and gathering dust. It couldn’t be easier, simply rent that sought after highchair or buggy board and when baby outgrows them, usually in a matter of weeks, send them back. The Baby Loft also provides a unique ‘Try before you buy’ service, an invaluable service that allows parents to hire a desired piece of equipment of their choice, giving them the opportunity to check the products suitability before committing to buy it. The site is the brainwave of mumpreneur Denise Proctor, founder of The Baby Loft, who felt that there was a niche in the market for a reputable baby equipment rental service, “The idea came to me whilst I was on maternity leave after having my daughter Olivia. I was astounded daily as to the amount of “stuff” that such a little person needs. In addition, family members also stock up their lofts with baby equipment ready to call upon when little ones come to visit. It began as a few scribbles on a sheet of paper, something that I would maybe do at some point in the future, I then returned to my software sales job and three weeks later was made redundant, this was exactly the motivation I needed and soon after The Baby Loft was born.” All the equipment available through The Baby Loft meets the latest safety standards, is professionally cleaned and is delivered and collected personally. The Baby Loft is also a member of BEHA – The Baby Equipment Hirers Association.
In the UK there is a serious demand for foster parents who could take care of teenagers. This research has been released by the Fostering Network and shows the large demand for foster parents of this kind. The survey showed that surrounds 60 percent of fostering services have an immediate demand for adults who can take care of teenagers and help them find a home. By being placed in a foster home teenagers have a better chance to finish their education than they would outside of foster care. Adults who choose to give a teenager a home will need to provide them with the support and love they need to succeed and become an adult. Across the UK, a child comes into care and needs a foster family every 22 minutes. The Fostering Network estimates that an extra 8,750 foster families are needed in 2012 alone (regional breakdown below). Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said: “Some teenagers in care have faced trauma beyond what can be comprehended by most of us. This means that skilled foster carers are urgently needed to help them overcome their trauma, and to help them develop their self-esteem and expectations so that they can achieve to their full potential.” In addition to the shortage of foster carers for teenagers, fostering services identified a growing need for foster carers who can specialise in caring for sibling groups (80 per cent) and children with disabilities (45 per cent). Robert continued: “Fostering services throughout the UK are working hard to recruit foster carers with the right skills so that each child who needs it can have the support they need and deserve.” Pearl Cotterell, who has fostered teenagers for the past seven years, said: “I always tell the teenagers I look after that no matter what, I’m not giving up on them, and I know they can turn their lives around. “So many of these young people have never had anyone who believes in them before. If you can instil that faith in them, then it gives them self-worth, and a desire to try and improve themselves, and that makes all the difference.” To find out more about fostering and to explore foster carer films and blogs, visit www.22minutes.org.uk
It is completely normal for children to be afraid of things, every child will have their own fears, some being more common than others. One of the most common things for children to be afraid of is the dark. The dark allows their imagination to run away with itself and they will think about all of the things that they can run into in the dark. It is likely the children will outgrow this fear, but it is something that parents can help them to overcome and it is important that they do because this sort of fear is not one that should be carried into adulthood.Parents should be very careful not to lose their patience with the children as this can only make the fear they have worse as it will be associated with anger from you. Of course, it is very easy to feel frustrated when your child is afraid of something that it doesn’t make sense for them to be afraid of. You should be very gentle when dealing with their fear and treated as a serious issue, but help them understand that the fear is irrational. Ask your children what they are afraid of and why the dark scares them. They will probably be up to tell you, but if they can’t, ask them to draw what they fear. Often, drawing is a good way for children to show what they are afraid of, because sometimes they don’t have the language skills to be able to describe it. You should take it in very slow steps in order to conquer your child’s fear of the dark. Stay with them when you switch the lights off as this will make them feel comfortable, and just keep doing this until they are comfortable with the lights being off while they are alone. It is widely known that in a household where the parents do not have a good relationship with their children, there are going to be problems for those children that will potentially affect them in later life. It is also going to make them suffer in the short term, and it is not just about the relationship between parent and child that matters, but also the relationship between the two parents. Parents have many responsibilities to their children and they are expected to educate them and inform them about how to be caring to others and be a good citizen. This was something that many parents will say their parents passed down to them through word-of-mouth and by example, but often it is something that needs to be directly taught to children, rather than just demonstrated. Unlike in the past, when people were less available to access information on such a large scale, parents are now not the only role models for their children. There are plenty of other people who set an example for children and often this is something that children want to follow. However, these examples are not always beneficial for children and there are plenty of negative role models out there. Television is a big source of potential role models who do not give positive values to children, instead they encourage killing, sexual misconduct and stealing. This leads children to desire these things and they can fall into a trap of delusion and unjustified last. It is therefore even more important than it was before to instil good moral values in your children. Your children can be very easily influenced by things such as television, so you must make a real effort to make sure that they do not start to follow negative role models. You should teach them about moral actions and how important it is to be a good citizen. In order to encourage this, you could consider limiting the amount of time they can spend in front of a screen. It is regularly being reported in today’s media that there are more children who are either overweight or obese in the UK than there ever have been before. Recent studies have compared the weight of children with children of the same age around 30 years ago, and the difference between these weights is quite alarming. There are many people speculating about what has been the cause for this dramatic increase in the weight of children. Some people speculate that it is because children do less exercise than they have done in the past, while others estimate it is because they are not eating as healthily as they used to. Studies have shown that children are generally less aware of where their food has come from, and are also not knowledgeable about how to cook food. In order to improve children’s understanding about food and where it comes from, a company have launched a set of fictional stories which have been based on a fictional city called Seed City. This is an interactive experience in children can enter competitions, take part in activities, and learn about cooking through these stories. It is the hope of the organisation that has created this idea that it will make cooking fun for children, and encourage parents to get involved with their children when preparing food together. There is also a complimentary website which shows children how to create food, and has also plenty of information for adults on how to create fun activities that promote healthy eating in your child. The website also encourages parents to encourage other families to get involved with the programme.  EducationApps provide great revision guides on mobile devices EducationApps is a provider of revision applications for mobile phones in the UK and over the past two months they’ve released around 50 applications for mobile devices. The applications are targeted towards students of many ages including those who are trying to pass the common entrance exam for grammar schools, all the way up to A-levels. Many of tests on the phone are based on users taking a quiz. They are either able to tell the application to choose a random topic, or they can ask you to test them on something specific. The phone applications also have detailed explanations of why which answers are correct and this is something that will assist revision greatly. The applications are also targeted specifically towards different exam boards, so users will get questions that are particularly relevant to them. George Burgess founded EducationApps when he was just 17. Now 20, he continues to manage the company while a full-time student. He says, “Mobile learning is overlooked by many traditional publishers. With my proximity to education I realised that there are thousands of students who have come to expect this type of material on their mobiles but can’t find it. EducationApps completely solves this problem.” The new apps are available on the iPhone and iPod touch. Many are also available for iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Apple has just featured the majority of the apps under the ‘Exam Time’ banner on the home page of their App Store. Burgess says, “We’ve had some great reviews so far and are delighted by the level of enthusiasm we’ve witnessed in response to our new apps. We are developing a brand which students can return to time and time again for all their mobile learning needs.” EducationApps has also teamed up with Oxford University Press to release a series of undergraduate apps, including Oxford University Press’ popular ‘Concentrates’ series for undergraduate students studying law. EducationApps has also worked with BBC Active, a joint venture between Pearson and BBC Worldwide to create the BBC Bitesize apps, which are also featured on Apple’s App Store. Throughout May, EducationApps rolls out two new apps a day and is staging daily competitions on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Going forward, the company will partner with more publishers to increase the variety of EducationApps’ content. Burgess says, “We have exciting projects in the pipeline and are working closely with many of the world’s top academic publishers.” All apps are available via EducationApps’ website, http://educationapps.co.uk
Many people are very familiar with the idea of drinking green tea for its health benefits, however most people are unfamiliar with another tea that is very beneficial to your health as well: white tea. All teas have health benefits to some extent, but like green tea, the health benefits of drinking white tea is usually higher than those gained from just drinking regular teas. The reason why white tea is more beneficial to your health is because it is not is processed as regular tea. When tea is processed is dried and refined, while this can make the taste more palatable for most people, it does take away a great many of the beneficial health factors that can be found in white tea, which is much less processed. It is not just about the preparation which makes white tea better for your health, but it is also about the leaves which are chosen. White’s teas are only made from the youngest leaves on the plant which are picked and then sun-dried. This means that you get the purest form of tea on the market and the health benefits of this are greatly amplified over other forms of tea. The major health benefit of drinking white tea is that it contains a large number of antioxidants. Antioxidants are a type of chemical that is capable of preventing the damage that free radicals do to the body. Free radicals are something that we get from being exposed to the sun too much, or eating foods that are overly processed. Free radicals are associated with many complicated health conditions, many of which are fatal, such as cancer. White tea is particularly known for containing the antioxidants polyphenols and flavonoids. These two antioxidants are particularly well known for being able to reduce the risk of a person suffering from cancer. It is not just major health conditions that white tea is capable of preventing, and it can also be very useful for people who want to tackle smaller problems that they are having with their body. One of the most common reasons why people start consuming large amounts of white tea is to tackle a high cholesterol problem. There are two forms of cholesterol, HDL and LDL, the latter of which is the one that is normally a problem for people. Consuming large amounts of white tea has been shown to reduce the levels of bad cholesterol, and promote higher levels of good cholesterol, HDL. Green tea is well known for being able to help people lose weight, and white tea is just as effective at increasing your metabolic rate, and encouraging fat loss. When you combine a healthy diet and regular exercise with white tea, you are going to get even more health benefits. The tea has even been shown to help people reduce their risk of developing type II diabetes. The reasons you should start drinking white tea are many and it is also an enjoyable beverage once you have got used to the taste. Article for Twinings – try their Diamond Jubilee Tea Blend It seems to be that there is a trend going on with children that there is no need for them to be accountable for the choices they make. This is obviously not the case in the real world and it is the parents responsibility to make their child aware of the fact that they have to face the consequences for their actions. Everyday we are faced with complicated decisions and we have to be very careful to make the right ones. If we make a wrong decision, we’re going to have to be accountable and responsible for the consequences of this decision. There are choices which will be well made, and they are sure to bring us a great deal of happiness but there are others that we should be careful of. The consequences of eating bad food is something that is very prevalent in our society, it is easy to see how many people have become overweight because they are eating bad food. If we eat bad food, then our bodies are going to suffer so we need to be accountable for what we eat. This is not something that just applies to adults, and parents should be making sure that the children are eating a healthy diet. This will mean they are healthier, and this can improve mental health, and allow them to make better life choices in other areas. The different choices we make are what shape our future, and many of them stretch for a longer time into the future than food. For example, choosing an occupation is a very important step, as is choosing a partner. Many people throughout history have made seemingly simple choices in their lives and these choices have led them either to great prosperity or great poverty, it is important as a parent is that you encourage your child to make the right choices. |
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